─── SAROS HAD MISSED OUT on all of the commotions that had taken place the evening before while he rested but when he woke up the next morning, it was clear on the faces of his family that something was wrong. Despite all of them taking the time to smile at him and wish him good morning, it was their eyes that gave them away. Clearly, none of them had slept through the night and Saros wished they had taken it upon themselves to return home to the comfort of their own beds. But it seemed their priority was to keep him company through the night and for that, he was grateful.

However, as soon as he was awake, it seemed as though everyone was in a rush to get moving, meaning, they were wanting to leave St Mungo's as soon as possible. They impatiently waited on one of the Healers to give Saros the clear to go home with them, but it seemed several Healers were uncomfortable with the idea of Saros leaving with his family. They didn't come out and say it directly, of course, but it was their mannerisms that gave them away. Many of them claimed they would have liked to work with more healing spells, but with no guarantee that they would work, their arguments were slipping.

Much to the displeasure of Arnold Johnson, he and the other Healers had no choice but to let Saros leave with his family. It was painful for him to witness just how excited Saros appeared to be about heading "home" as he wasn't aware of the previous months where he had not been welcomed to come home unless he changed his views.

He wanted to interfere and tell Saros the truth that Angelina had informed him over the last several months while she had been at school. Unfortunately, it seemed he was stuck between a rock and a hard place as if he tried to inform Saros of everything it could prove to be overwhelming and possibly damaging. Not to mention, Saros could only recall the faces around him and if Arnold said anything against the boy's family, it was very likely that Saros wouldn't believe him.

They had to let Saros leave.

"If you start experiencing headaches, have any lapses with your short-term memory, or if you need anything, please come back here," Arnold advised him as he sat in the room with Saros. "I would advise that you speak with one of the therapists that we have here, Mr Malfoy. You may find it very beneficial and they are trained to help you. We can't guarantee any progress with your memory, but it may help."

Saros felt like there was more that Arnold wanted to tell him, but the Healer refrained from doing so as Lucius returned to the room. He claimed he was going to return home for a moment to get something for Saros before they made the travel home. Arnold quickly picked himself up from the chair, shooting Lucius a look in passing before exiting the room. Narcissa and Draco had returned home, waiting on the arrival of Saros as Lucius agreed to bring him back.

With something practically gnawing at the back of his mind, Saros peered up at his father and met his gaze for a moment. "Everything is alright, isn't it?" he questioned. "Is there something wrong? Something no one is telling me?"

He feared he was being kept in the dark about something, mainly because it seemed everyone was tiptoeing around him. He knew that no one was supposed to give him much informationt o allow the memories to come back on their own, but something didn't feel right to Saros and he wanted to know why.

"Everything is fine, son," Lucius told him as he crossed the room and sat beside him on the bed, " you don't need to worry about anything. Now, are you ready to head home?"

With a nod of his head, Saros dismissed the paranoid thoughts and watched as his father pulled out what appeared to be a cloth bag and pulled something out of it. Seconds later, a silver prosthetic leg was pulled out and placed in Saros' lap. It was heavy, compared to the last prosthetic that Jo had fixed for him, but at the same time, for what it looked like, it felt rather light as well. However, to Saros, it didn't look very functional and he wasn't sure how it was going to work besides just coming across as rather flashy.

"It's made of goblin silver," Lucius explained to him, " a rather decieving metal, it works well for you. This...this was yours before you went missing. It's designed to fit you perfectly, it's lightweight, and it moves just as your other leg would. Your mother and I made sure you had the best."

Saros was in slight disbelief as he glanced down at his lap once more. To hear such a thing as goblin silver, he was still getting accustomed to the life of magic and now he was learning about there possibly being goblins in the world. With a small swallow, he proceeded to thank his father quietly before placing it on, and Lucius had proven to be right. Unlike the uncomfortable wear of the muggle prosthetic that had been given to him, Saros found himself feeling the coolness of the metal as it turned to fit him like a glove.

Slowly, he pushed himself up and walked around the room a bit with his father watching before he turned to face him. "This is amazing, the metal actually bends, it's like...." he stopped and hung his head with a foolish grin, leaving Lucius to look at him in confusion.

"It's like what, son?"

"It's like magic."

For a moment, Lucius took in the smile on Saros' face, remembering how long it had been since he had witnessed it. It had nearly been a year since Saros had cast a smile in his father's direction, leaving the Malfoy Manor completely furious after the Quidditch World Cup. But it was like none of that had happened for the period of time, Saros appeared happy and Lucius was going to hold onto that for as long as he possibly could.

Giving Saros a few minutes to walk around, Lucius finally stood up from the bed and told Saros that it was time to go home.

As instructed, Saros held onto his father when it came time to leave St Mungo's and as he didn't quite expected, found himself being twisted through the air at such a rapid pace that he felt like he was being ripped from a scene. But that was exactly what had happened as Saros gripped onto the front of Lucius' robes and peered around after the movement came to a sudden stop. He had opened his eyes and looked around to see they were no longer in the hospital, but in a completely different setting.

His hands continued to shake slightly, but he loosened his grip as he turned away from his father to get a better look as to where they were. In the short distance, appeared a long gravel driveway, with large hedges lining the way up, and near the end of the driveway stood a tall iron-wrough gate.

"What is this place?" Saros asked, taking a few steps forward, only to have Lucius place a hand on his shoulder.

"This is home."

Saros was absolutely speechless at the scenery he was taking in as his father guided him down the driveway. Despite the hedges covering whatever was beyond, he could hear the noises of some creatures on the other side, leaving him awfully curious. And when they neared the gate, Saros was finally able to see that the source of the noise were, in fact, pure white peacocks that were strutting about.

His father saluted in a discrete manner that caused them to pass through the gates as if they were smoke, leaving Saros' lips to part in amazement. The peacocks scurried off in the presence of their arrival and Saros was left to peer up at the manor before him. Gardens surrounded the handsomely dark manor, lights flickered in the diamond-paned windows on the first level and as the two neared the front door, it opened inward to welcome them home.

Turning to his father, Saros had to focus enough to get his words out in a full sentence. "We live here?!" he whispered. "All of this? This belongs to our family?"

It was quite the news to learn just how much wealth Saros and his family belonged to as Lucius nodded his head in confirmation. Remembering that Jo and William lived comfortably in a humble home outside of London, Saros couldn't imagine just how much space was inside the manor, especially with only four people living there. It seemed unnecessary but at the same time, everything seemed so beautifully in place that it was hard to complain.

Lucius led the way in first and as soon as Saros stepped into vast foyer, he was greeted by his mother and Draco. Narcissa pulled him into a hug, welcoming him home as Draco smiled behind, looking awfully relieved that his big brother had returned.

"Did everything go alright at the hospital?" Narcissa asked, looking at Lucius for the answer. He nodded his head, remaining quiet as the two of them along with Draco observed Saros walking around.

Occassionally, Saros would pick up something such as a vase or a small piece of art before setting it back down and moving on. His eyes trailed up to the portraits on the walls that seemed to follow his every movement and finally when one of them moved, he screeched and jumped back. He nearly fell over with a bewildered look on his face, pointing in the direction of the portrait of his grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, and claiming that it had moved. It was difficult for the family to remember that along with Saros' memory, he really had no recollection of magic. They had to view him as if he were a muggle or a muggle-born, learning all of the elements of the wizarding world for the first time.

Of course, not to be cruel, but Draco found his brother's reaction to the portrait rather hilarious as he began laughing. Saros looked over in his direction, realising that the portrait more than likely was supposed to be capable of moving and his reaction was more than dramatic. With Draco's laughter, Saros couldn't help but join in and suddenly, the two had entered a fit where they couldn't bring themselves to stop.

Narcissa pressed her hands to her mouth to surpress her own laughter, but she could not conceal her smile as she saw her boys laughing together again. If she had allowed Andromeda and Sirius to take Saros, she believed she would never have her family whole again. Now she had both of her sons home for the remainder of the summer and nothing could take that away from her.

Or so she had fooled herself to believe.

The happy reunion and laughter was interrupted when there was a tapping at the window that brought all of them to look over. Lucius and Narcissa paled as they recognised the owl that was waiting on them to open up and take the message.

"Hey, look, it's an owl," Saros said about to make his way over, but Lucius quickly stopped him, by placing his arm out. Saros stopped and remained in place as Lucius made his way over to the window and collected what appeared to be a letter from the bird. He tore into the envelope, reading it over before looking in the direction of Narcissa.

"I need to leave for now," Lucius said with a solemn expression, " I'll be back shortly."

Judging by the worried expressions cast around the room, Saros wanted to once again ask if everything was alright, but he knew better because he was sure no one was going to tell him anything.

Instead of standing around and waiting for Lucius to return from wherever he had ventured off to, Draco decided to take the initiative by showing Saros around the manor. Narcissa told them that she would have something fixed for them to eat by the house-elves when they were finished.

"What are house-elves?" Saros whispered to Draco as they walked along a long hallway. Draco peered up at him, feeling uncomfortable with just how much his brother didn't know at the time.

"Servants," he answered, " they take care of the manor so that we don't have to. You probably won't see them around much though, Father and Mother don't let them linger around when they're not needed. Many of them remain in the cellar until they're called upon-"

His voice trailed off as Saros stopped walking in the hallway and looked disturbed by what he was hearing. "Servants in the cellar? That sounds a bit cruel, doesn't it?"

"It's fine, Saros, they're house-elves, that's what they are for. It's their whole life purpose to serve."

Some aspects of the Wizarding World had proven to be beautiful to Saros, the magic was amazing, but it seemed he was making his first discovery of something he didn't like. But Draco decided to move things along as he promised to show Saros to his room. That certainly piqued the eldest Malfoy's interest as he followed his little brother. He wanted to see his room and see if any memories would present themselves if he recognised anything.

But as Draco led the way in, it wasn't anything that Saros had been expecting, especially since his room seemed rather bare. There was hardly anything on the walls, the sheets were plain, and there was no indicator that anyone had lived in the room at all. It resembled more of a guest room in Saros' mind, making him wonder if he had been that dull in his life before whatever happened to him.

"This is my room?" he questioned. "Where's all my stuff?"

He had to think with the state of the manor being so completely lavish and luxiorious that there had to be more to his room.

Draco suddenly became nervous as he realised that no one had taken into consideration that they had stripped Saros' room and sent him all of his belongings while he had been away at school. Every personal item that Saros had collected had been sent back to him as a form of punishment, hoping it would be enough to break his stubborn spirit. But by doing so, it left Saros' room disgustingly bare and Draco feared it would trigger the wrong memories for his brother.

Quickly, his eyes glanced over to Saros' school trunk and he made his way over, hoping there would be something in side of it. Pushing it open, Draco was able to sigh in relief as he saw that Saros had kept all of the items sent to him, even if they were sent out of spite. Photos, pictures he had drawn over the years, everything that had been sent was right there.

"Here," Draco called out to him, " you...um...you took things from your room to school with you. They're all in here."

Saros seemed overjoyed as he made his way over and knelt down before his school trunk, pulling out photographs that started to move. He watched the scene of his family laughing and how his drawings moved across the paper. He pulled out his school uniform and robes, looking them over before pulling out parchment scrolls and textbooks. Draco sat down next to him and helped him pull out the belongings, such as Quidditch posters and placing them on the floor.

At one point though, Draco grabbed what appeared to be a small bag and lifted it up. Confused by what appeared to be small pellets before holding it up for Saros to look at. "Any idea as to what these are?"

Without hesitation, Saros seemed to remember one thing right away. "Papaya seeds," he said, taking the bag into his hands and looking it over as he started to chuckle. "They look like ticks."

Draco didn't know how close Saros was to unlocking the full memory of his date with Angelina on Valentine's Day, but thankfully, Saros became distracted by a quidditch flag as he pulled it out.

"What's Quidditch?"

Nearly giddy, Draco looked forward to teaching his brother all about the wizarding sport as he left the room quickly to grab his copy of "Quidditch Through the Ages." When he returned to Saros' room, he found Saros sitting in the middle of the floor staring blankly at the wall. In his hands, Draco noticed that he was holding onto a silver bracelet with a hare on it. It was obviously something given to him, whether it was Luna or Angelina, Draco wasn't sure, but it left him nearly breaking into a sweat.

But as Saros saw that Draco had returned, he placed the bracelet aside and turned his attention to him, eager to learn about Quidditch. Making his way over, Draco sat next to him and opened up the book.

"Did I like Quidditch?" Saros asked. "Did I play it?"

"You liked it," Draco said, " you loved it actually. But, no, you didn't play it. You had...some troubles...because of your leg...but maybe we can try again."

"Yeah that would be great, I'd like that."

While Draco had been going over the rules of Quidditch, there was the sound coming from the front of the manor, leaving Saros to become distracted.

"Maybe Father's home," Saros said pushing himself up and making his way out of the room, leaving Draco behind.

He made his way to the end of the hallway, following the sound of the noise and as he reached the end of the hall, he saw that he was right. Lucius was coming through the front door where Narcissa was waiting for him. Neither one of the said anything right away, but as Narcissa looked at Lucius, he finally took to nodding his head. Immediately, she broke into sobs, a smile on her face as she ran forward and pulled Lucius into a hug that he gladly returned.

Saros didn't think his father had been gone that long to warrant such a response with his return, but little did he know that his mother and father were crying in relief that Saros' life was going to be spared, but it was all going to come with a price.